From Afar
by Shadow Oblivion
Summary: Sabo could not be stopped. He would not be stopped. Luffy needed his help, and he would get it, one way or another. Distance wasn't an issue, and neither was that whispery voice of an unseen figure that had informed Sabo of the trouble in the first place.


A/N: This is probably a bit ooc and is rather silly but I couldn't help it after the newest op chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing from One Piece.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Sabo, chief of staff of the revolutionary army, was on high alert. A sudden shift in the air outside and a brief, nearly inaudible whisper near his ear had made the blond haired young man become more aware of his surroundings.

Something was wrong.

Sabo knew it.

Another whisper fluttered through the air, as if the unseen speaker was informing Sabo that there was indeed trouble.

Maybe there was a faint voice there, maybe there wasn't.

Only Sabo knew.

The change came quickly as it always did these days. The glint in his eyes. The way his posture stiffened as if in direct response to something. That somewhere, somehow, something had happened. All was not right and Sabo knew in an instant what it was. He didn't need that faint, barely there voice to confirm his suspicions that had been steadily growing throughout the day.

Luffy.

Luffy was in danger.

He had to go.

Koala saw it all but even as she spoke she knew it was too late. "Sabo, we have to meet up with the others..." It was a useless gesture. Koala could see that there was only one thing on the blond's mind.

Sabo surged to his feet in an instant as he ripped open the front of his coat to reveal a shirt with the words 'I got your back, bro' in block letters across his chest.

"Where did you even get that?" Koala asked, not sure whether to laugh or shake her head at the shirt's message.

Sabo dashed out of the cabin, pipe in hand as he crammed his hat onto his head with his other hand. "It doesn't matter! Luffy needs my help!"

"Sabo, no."

Not again. This was the fifth time in two weeks.

"I'll be right back."

Meaning he'd be gone a day or more; per usual since this had started to happen.

"What are you doing?" Koala chased after Sabo only to see a ball of fire streaking through the air toward a small boat. "There isn't even an island for miles!"

"No expanse of sea will prevent me from helping my little brother!" Sabo declared as he sailed off in the direction that he believed Luffy was in trouble.

Koala was speechless as she watched Sabo vanish from view.

Hack joined Koala minutes later. After he saw the look on her face, Hack spoke up in an unsurprised tone. "He left again?"

"Yep, just now." Koala said with a nod.

"Was it about Luffy?"

"When else does he recklessly charge off to who knows where?"

"...Good point."

Both revolutionaries fell silent before Koala let out a sigh and shook her head. The short haired young woman glanced over to her fishman comrade. "We seriously need to think about sticking a tracking device on Sabo if he's going to go gallivanting off after his brother so often."

"Agreed." Hack paused a moment. "But won't it just be burned if he can't control his Devil Fruit powers occasionally and ends up burning his clothes?"

"...I didn't think of that."

-x

"Awesome! Nami, look! Meat!" Luffy exclaimed in excitement as he pointed out the overly large display case, just in case his navigator hadn't seen the meat.

"It's too expensive." Nami immediately said in return, which caused Luffy to pout as if the meat couldn't be too expensive if he was going to be the one to eat it.

Neither Nami nor Luffy noticed the assassin in the bush until he was almost upon them. Though perhaps it was because this particular man's talent and threat level was so low he didn't even register as a potential danger to either of the Straw Hats. Or perhaps Nami and Luffy felt their mini argument was far more important than any potential assassins trying to stab them in the back.

No one would ever know the reason, but observation haki probably would have cut it had someone not stepped in to deal with the threat first.

"Die, Straw Hat!" The assassin cried triumphantly. Instead of stabbing Luffy, however, the assassin instead went up in flames. That was not a part of the plan at all. The man fell to the ground with a pathetic whimper as he rolled around to extinguish the flames.

Sabo was suddenly there to glare down at the man that had dared to try and harm his brother.

"Ah! Sabo. When did you get here?" Luffy had noticed the commotion and brightened upon seeing the blond.

Sabo's smile switched in an instant. He smiled happily back at his little brother, pleased that he was fine. "I was in the area. There was some trouble but it's been taken care of."

The assassin smoldered on the ground in the background and moaned something pitifully.

Sabo ignored him.

Luffy didn't notice but Nami sure did and pointed it out. "What's that?"

Sabo smile changed a little, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "The trouble. But as I've said, it's been taken care of." Sabo ignored the assassin completely as he turned to face Nami. "You must be one of my brother's friends."

"Luffy?" Nami asked as she continued to eye the downed would-be assassin behind Sabo, who was now trying to crawl away. "Brother?"

Luffy gave Nami a bright smile. "Yeah, this is Sabo."

"So he's your brother...like Ace was?" Nami asked, still side tracked by the man on the ground.

"Yeah. He's with my dad. I think." Luffy finally noticed the assassin and his burnt state. "Huh? Who's that guy?"

"Well-"

"Dragon?" Nami whirled on Luffy, cutting off Sabo's explanation of the now pathetic assassin. "Your brother is in the revolutionary army?"

"Yeah." Luffy picked his nose as he gave the large amount of meat nearby a hopeful look.

"Nice to meet you." Sabo said to Nami with a tip of his hat. The blond smiled again and acted as if he hadn't just set the assassin behind him on fire again. Sabo wasn't about to let anyone get off scot free for attempting to harm his little brother.

-x

There were a few more pleasantries exchanged before Sabo parted ways with Nami and Luffy. Sabo made certain that his brother sailed away on his ship with his friends before he turned and began to make sure that no one on the island would target his brother and delay him.

They didn't, wouldn't dare.

The assassin from before who dragged himself with painful burns out of town had made sure of that.

No shots were fired.

Sabo watched as Luffy sailed further away before the blond flicked a finger to light it on fire. Sabo stared at the flickering flame at the tip of his forefinger. "He grew up well, didn't he, Ace? And he's got a lot of friends with him." Sabo smiled. "Don't worry. I'll watch out for him for the both of us." Sabo extinguished the flame with another flick of his finger and headed toward his small boat to reunite with Koala and Hack.

-x

Unbeknownst to both Sabo and Luffy, another watched their exchanges from beside them unseen.

Ace.

Though only in spirit, Ace still smiled as they did. Laughed at absurd news exchanges when they happened to cross paths. And reveled in the parties that became fewer these days but were still as festive as they always were. Ace even helped Sabo with his Devil Fruit when it seemed as if the blond was having trouble controlling it. He always laughed when Sabo would let out an exhilarated whoop when he managed to get the Devil Fruit to not burn his clothes and in fact not burn others on accident either.

Ace may not have been able to be with his brothers in person but he tried to be there with them in spirit when he was able to. And he was always pleased when Luffy or Sabo would look his way, as if they could really see him. Ace knew that he didn't always have to be around for Luffy or Sabo to be aware of his presence.

They just knew.

And it seemed like nothing was going to get in their way of accomplishing their separate goals. That was enough for Ace to be proud of them both. So as time trailed along lazily, Ace kept watch over Luffy and Sabo from afar, always reassured by the fact that both his brothers were doing well whenever he checked up on them.

Ace smiled before he vanished from view after Sabo and Luffy's most recent exchange with one thought. Sabo really needed to get more of those hilarious shirts. 'Fear the flames of my wrath' was Ace's favorite one so far. Sabo had worn it as he razed a group of pirates intent on harming their little brother.

Ace approved. After all, someone had to be around to watch Luffy's back, since his friends weren't always going to be there to help him. Ace couldn't directly interact with the world, so he was happy that Sabo was more than willing to watch out for Luffy for them both.

And that was more than good enough for Ace.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A/N: I just wanted to write a dorky little one-shot with Sabo being overly protective of Luffy and being a bit of a psycho while doing it. And to have an excuse to have Ace being a spirit and watching out for his brothers too.


End file.
